I’m working on a little project about food in film, so naturally I’m replaying in my head every food film I’ve known and loved. I would have given my eye teeth to have been able to actually rewatch one or two of them when I got home yesterday, but, alas, such great fun was not on the agenda.
Good thing there’s a long holiday weekend coming up! And really, what better time to watch a food film than Thanksgiving weekend? I’ll have to choose wisely, though, since I do have to keep my nose to the academic grindstone. I rewatched “Ratatouille” right before the start of the school term (“Everyone can cook!”), so that’s off my contenders list. I don’t have copies of “Babette’s Feast” or “Like Water for Chocolate” in my possession, so I’ll have to cross those off for the short term. That leaves me with what I consider three of the top food films of all time:
  1. Big Night.” The whole film is gorgeous, and the big dinner scene is luscious and decadent, but it’s the simple, honest beauty of the omelette scene at the end that stole my heart. The soundtrack is awesome, too, by the way. (Stanley Tucci, always amazing, was especially so in this movie. He was also great in “Julie & Julia,” another good food movie…the Julia Child part, anyway.)
  2. Mostly Martha.” I haven’t seen the Americanized version of this lovely German film, and I don’t want to. Why mess with success? A funny, touching film about what it means to truly nourish others, as well as yourself.
  3. Eat, Drink, Man, Woman.” I’ve never met an Ang Lee film I haven’t liked, and I saw EDMW for the first time back before he made his big break in American (his early film “The Wedding Banquet” is also fantastic). A beautiful, moving story about the importance of nurturing family relationships and keeping food traditions alive.
I don’t know if I can hit all three this weekend, but I’m aiming for two, for sure, if my to-do list doesn’t expand to meet the total number of hours in the weekend. Sigh. I need to do some food reading, too. My December issue of Bon Appetit came in the mail yesterday…which made me realize I had yet to read the November issue. What is wrong with me? I also have the latest issue of Eating Well waiting for me, the first in my new subscription. With stacks and stacks of back issues of cooking magazines, I hardly need more, but what can I say, they had me at “2 years for $12.”